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Sunday, April 29, 2012

On Red Mosque (Lal Masjid)

A factual analysis of its background, the operation itself and the aftermath

The Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) Operation was carried out by Pakistani armed
forces against clerics and students of Lal Masjid, Islamabad, Pakistan
in July of 2007. The operation divided opinions among Pakistanis at home
and abroad.

Very few people outside or inside of Pakistan received accurate
information on the Operation as their primary source of knowledge was
the Pakistani or International media. Therefore several of the opinions
lack hard factual basis, are contradictory to one another or simply
going against eye-witness accounts. In this article we analyze a
discussion by the Grand Mufti of Pakistan Mufti Rafi Uthmani (DB) who
was at Islamabad at the time of the operation. We shall attempt to
scrutinize his claims and those of the media using hard evidences and
endeavor to separate fact from fiction.

The following is an English translation of the speech Mufti Rafi Uthmani (DB) gave
sometime after the operation. (The original in Urdu can be found here.)

Speech begins here:

“Respected Elders and dear
brothers, I know that you are eager to know what happened at Lal Masjid
and that you are sad and frustrated at this bloody game. Whole of
Pakistan is frustrated.

The details are more or less in front of you; via newspapers, radio
and televisions. But we have one complaint with the media that they did
not elaborate on the Truth (of what happened) in the manner that Truth
should be elaborated. They are not clarifying what is obvious. They are
leaving doubts, and the media has adopted a hostile attitude. Hostile
attitude towards ulema and religious circles such as adopted towards an
enemy nation. This is a worrisome situation.

We can only complain of this situation to Allah (SWT). We are without
power, army and weapons; and to use arms against your own government is
not permissible either. In this situation, except that we repent for
our sins to Allah, this is the first step, because all the problems that
come upon us are the fruit of our own doings. In our own Pakistan the
widespread disobedience to Allah that is prevalent, from the government
offices to the lower echelon. In this situation no matter which
punishments befall us are not unexpected. We had rainstorm and killer
winds. Half the country was being destroyed by them but this second
problem arose.

I am repeating again that Prophet (SAW) foretold of these fitnah.
That there will be a time that there will be fitnah after fitnah, one
after the other, and the next one bigger than the previous. On 12th May,
a blood game was played, of innocent blood. Whole world watched, TV
broadcasted it, everyone watched. The killers’ faces were even shown .
None of them were ever caught. As though it wasn’t a crime.

Background and the demands of Lal Masjid clerics:

The people of Lal masjid made good demands. They are requirements of
our emaan and religion. But they method they chose to pursue them was
against the methods of the elders and the scholars. Everyone tried to
tell me that. But what was their crime? What was the wrong method they
adopted?

They captured a children’s library. That was wrong. They had captured
a woman who ran a brothel. This capture was wrong. To complain against
that brothel and to strive for its closure, using permitted and lawful
methods, was absolutely correct. But they say that we, the people of the
neighborhood, used to take complaints to the authorities but they were
not stopping the brothel and it was running. The people of the
neighborhood were worried, the decent people were worried. Many men used
to come there in the night to commit Zina. One girl came and told her
tale that she was deceived in being taken there and then forcibly she
was molested, her photos were taken and she was blackmailed that if she
told her parents these photos will be published. She was continuously
blackmailed and called up again and again to commit Zina. She was
helpless. She took her plea to Jamia faridiya/Jamia Hafsah.

But despite all this we say that their act of capturing Aunty Shamim
was wrong. This was not their job. If the government wasn’t capturing
her they should have gone to the newspapers etc. But this job was beyond
your responsibilities. This would have spread fitnah, started fighting
and the government would be reared to adopt a harsh tone; and the people
whose hands the government is in you all know. As a result the blood
that would have been shed was shed.

Illegal actions of the Lal Masjid clerics

So their mistake was that they called Aunty Shamim and made her
repent and confess; then sent her back. Not one slap, not one cane, not
one needle pinched into her, not one thorn inserted into her body.
Second thing they did (was bout) that the massage center, co-massage
center, and who does the massage on entire body? Chinese women. Who gets
the massage? Muslim men of Islamabad…while naked. This is the massage.
The center was there. So this was against the law, the constitution of
Pakistan, against our religious values; it was a crime from every angle.
Those who gave a license to this center they had also committed a
crime. But their (Lal masjid people) crime was that they captured the
Chinese women, clad them in burqa and then returned them. This was a
mistake. So how many mistakes?

Police arrested their men, they arrested some policemen. This was
fourth mistake. The mistake of the police aside, but this was their
fourth mistake. How many mistakes? They brought Aunty Shamim without
torture they returned her. Brought Chinese women from the massage center
and returned them without physical abuse. Police arrested their
students; they arrested their students (policemen) so their students
would be released. How many crimes? Three. Fourth crime was that they
captured the library. These four were crimes, we admit. We are not going
to make an explanation. We kept telling them that you are doing wrong.
You don’t have a right to do this. Government within a government,
federation within a federation, taking the law into your hands, is not
permitted in Sharia.

Did the Wafaq-ul-Madaris and Ulema play their role?

What is interesting, this is good so that this matter is clarified.
The world is saying today, our writers and columnists are also saying
and the journalists too ‘look the madrasahs got maligned, the image sent
to the world about them, are madrasahs like this? They spread such
anarchy, they stock arms, they are oppressive, they are
violence-mongers, and they are extreme separatists ’. A TV person asked
me, I replied I am astonished you are saying this. Do you know this or
not? That these five points (mistakes) of jamia hafsah were called wrong
by all or not? The madrasahs registered with Wifaq-ul-madaris, in
thousands, it was the most prominent among them. There were about 10,000
male and female students in jamia hafsah and its branches. Almost. But
wifaq-ul-madaris, just because of this reason, removed them from the
board, because wifaq-ul-madaris does not agree with this anarchy. It
does not support such separatism; does not condone this violence. And
the affiliation got cancelled. The students kept applying and calling.
Teachers kept applying and their groups kept visiting us that please
save one year of our students from being wasted, but we said no.

The operation was at jamia hafsah, but since the operation was being
done by maulana Abdul Aziz and he was the head of this (jamia faridiya)
as well, so we also cancelled the affiliation of jamia faridiya and
refused to include their students in the annual examination. Wifaq ul
madaris published their announcement repeatedly, and all this that I am
telling you, was explained in it.

So is this not proof that Wifaq ul madaris does not permit any of its
madrasahs to condone violence and extremism. Not just making it
impermissible it does not even tolerate such madrasahs where there is
terrorism, extremism, violence or where law is taken into their own
hands. Then not just wifaq ul madaris but all the ulema of the country
and all scholars of thought refuted these wrong methods of jamia hafsah
heads and called it wrong. Is this not proof that all madrasahs and all
ulema are against extremism, violence, anarchy and separatism? This
should have been the message sent to the whole world regarding this
incident that all ulema and madaris believe the way of extremism and
violence to be wrong, and consider it so wrong that they separated their
old mates from themselves because they did not agree to these
aforementioned beliefs of ours. You people are understanding or not?

Then those TV personnel said you are saying something very important
and I said then convey this message of ours. Convey it to the world.

The Government policy towards the demands of Lal Masjid clerics

But what our government did was that it did not act on even one
demand of the Lal masjid clerics. Till now people of Pakistan are
waiting that who were the people in office who had for so many years
supported Aunty Shamim’s brothel. Who had permitted that brothel? Which
people went there for Zina? They all are innocent. They are faultless.
They did not commit any crime. The crime was committed by those who
brought Aunty Shamim peacefully, had her repent and then sent her back.
Tell me whose crime is bigger? Brothel owners or the people of jamia
hafsah? Crime was on both sides. But the crime of the brothel owners was
greater than the crime of the people of jamia hafsah.

Mosques were martyred in Islamabad, in capital of Islamic republic of
Pakistan…the Houses of Allah (SWT) were martyred. From here the people
of Jamia Hafsah started their movement. The method of our government is
that until one stands up to them with sticks and shoes and until stones
are not thrown at them and until the way of anarchy is not adopted they
are not ready to listen to any demand. This is the methodology of the
government. If this persists then there can never be peace in this
country.
You do not listen to us in civilized conversation. Do not accept
proofs . Do not pay least attention to what Qur’an and Sunnat say. Not
ready to listen to what constitution and law says. But they will remain
adamant on anti-Islamic policies. So what will be the result? The result
will be that the people will spring into action. The emotional and
arduous will stand up. They will take the law into their hand. Then they
will neither listen to us nor you. Hence this is what happened in Jamia
Hafsah.

Mosques were martyred. People protested and talked, the ulema did,
but they (government) did not take the slight notice. So the people of
jamia hafsah said you martyred the House of our Allah, we capture your
library. Not martyr (destroy) it, capture it. This was wrong. No, this
was right, the method was incorrect. Should not have captured it. The
ulema went and advised them as well as the elders and people from wifaq.
But they said that you tell us that these government leaders are like
this that without harshness they do not listen. Acceptance is something
for after, they are not even ready to listen. Tell us how (else) we do
it?
We said you take help in patience and make dua to Allah (SWT) and do
not deviate from the path of the law. But they were not ready to accept
this. So how many crimes were there? Four crimes: brought Aunty Shamim
peacefully and returned her peacefully, brought Chinese women peacefully
and returned her peacefully, policemen were captured and kept
peacefully and were also served during their capture, captured
children’s library (and) did not do any damage or carried out any
violence inside (and) did not hurt anyone. In all these actions not even
one person was hurt by even a thorn. Not one slap. The whole world made
the noise of ‘Sharia with canes, sharia with canes’ but give even one
example when the students used even one cane on anyone. These were just
for show, that these sticks were taken by the female students.

Such
noise on this.
On this crime more than 300 hundred, hundreds of students were killed here.
Say how is this justice?

And on 12th may a blood game was played. 40, or more than
that, people were killed. The killers were seen by the world. The TV
showed it and till today not one murderer has been arrested.
They say that the writ of the government was challenged, by the
people of jamia hafsah. So didn’t the murderers of 40 people not
challenge your writ? Here you did not consider the respect and prestige
of your ‘writ’? But since those 40 killed were poor helpless people and
their killers backed by non-Pakistani agencies so you did not feel any
mercy for those 40 people nor did you worry about your writ.
Today your writ is being challenged by NATO forces, inside Pakistani
soil, they are bombing innocent Muslims from Afghanistan. How many
Pakistani Muslims have been martyred by them till now? Bombed from aero
planes even.

Over there you do not worry about your writ, that your writ is being
challenged by someone? It is because you consider them your overlords.
You have made them your sovereign. You are protecting their writ. You do
not feel the need to protect your honor there. You do not see the
disrespect of your own law over there.
On the helpless your bravery works. On the innocent, the women,
children, the disarmed. That Pakistani force that, with the Grace of
Allah (SWT), showed the merit of their strength, ability, bravery,
sacrifice, and emaan in the jihad of 1965 and Alhamdulillah the opinion
even today is that on the whole our army is brimming with emaan and
among the best armies of the world.

This army has been nurtured and supported by the people of Pakistan
by suffering financially and paying the taxes. It is our trust. It is
our earning. It is our power , the protector of our borders, we are
proud of it, but you are using our superb army in these cowardly deeds.
This superb army that our nation prepared for the enemies of Islam , the
army that was created for the protection of Pakistan, today you are
endeavoring to make this army act on the orders of the enemy. Today your
bravery does not work in Kashmir; you brought the army back from
kargil, nor does your bravery work in defending our western borders from
NATO.
Your bravery works on the madrasah of bajaur; on killing the students
there. Your bravery works on madrasah of jamia hafsah, on the male and
female students. These are your cowardly deeds and you say that peace
and law and order should be maintained. Every way to usurp the law and
order has been adopted by you and then you tell us that ‘ulema must play
their role’. The ulema went (to jamia hafsah) to play their role (in)
Islamabad. We went. You gentlemen must have read it in the newspapers.

The negotiations and the peace agreement

All deals were decided. First we talked to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain,
he said I will deliver your formula, he understood it and said he will
deliver the formula to the upper echelons. At night Ejaz ul Haq arrived
and we placed the matter before him and after some discussion he also
accepted it that this formula is applicable and the government’s writ
will be preserved , respect of law will be maintained , blood will be
prevented from being shed and the matter will be over. But he did not
make a promise and said that I will arrange a meeting for you with the
Prime Minister.

So I asked Ejaz ul Haq that whether our PM was in the position to
make a decision; because the people knew in which position our PM was.
He said he is 100%. That is what he said and that he was 100% in
position to make a decision. So we said let us meet. We met. The formula
was placed there even and he explained some of his difficulties , which
were also told by Ejaz ul Haq, and its solution was also decided. It
was said that this should be implemented now.

What was decided was that Abdur rasheed Ghazi, he had told us daily
on the phone repeatedly that I will not allow myself to be arrested,
will lay down my life but not be arrested willingly. Perhaps the reason
for it was how Maulana Abdul Aziz sahib was arrested and humiliated on
TV and how the arrested students were stripped of their upper body clothing,
blindfolded and shown in humiliation on TV, that he decided maybe that
an honorable death was better than a disgraced life. So he told me
clearly and repeatedly that I am not ready to be arrested willingly, I
will lay down my life but not be arrested willingly. But I am ready to
accept that me, my wife and kids, my personal belongings be taken to my
village, I leave Jamia Hafsah too and Jamia Faridiya also. I leave Lal
Masjid, the children library and all the weapons I shall surrender. Let
me go to my home. However I will give the two Jamia in the
administration of Wifaq ul madaris so that they are not damaged by the
government. Masjid will be taken care of by the Auqaaf and run it.

So this deal, was agreed verbally, and PM gave the green signal on its implementation. This is after dhuhr, before asr.
After this for its implementation, Chaudhry Shujaat, Ejaz ul Haq, Mr.
Durrani (minister of broadcasting), Mr. Tariq Azeem (wazeer e mumlikat)
and our delegation went there in a caravan of cars. That prohibited
area was opened for us but when we reached Lal Masjid we had to walk to
reach it, or we could have gone by these cars. Then a senior ranger’s
officer, or the most senior one I do not know, he stopped us from going
further and said do not go further. He said that to the Ministers and
also to Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein. His behavior was such as though he did
not know were signing an agreement. He was not concerned with this
agreement, he just said you cannot go further.
“Why couldn’t we go ahead?”
“Sir there is risk, there is risk”
“What is the risk?”
“We fear they will take you hostage”
So some of the scholars who were from Karachi and accompanying us
said we will take that risk. We are hopeful they will not take us
hostage. They are our brothers. But even if they did take us hostage we
are ready to take this risk and we will go and talk to them, and we will
tell them all these things.
But they said no, this will not happen. Then some of our delegates
also expressed this concern. We told everyone that if you wish to go
back on your own responsibility then you may do so. But some of our
delegates came to us quietly and said there was danger of one thing:
there are rangers everywhere. We believe strongly that these rangers
will kill our men who are going inside so that the blame falls on Abdur
rasheed Ghazi.

So it was deiced among us and Chaudhry Shujaat etc. in a house nearby
taken over by the rangers and we wrote an agreement and the
implementation and details were agreed according to the guidelines
already decided in the meeting earlier with the PM; after discussions
with the Ministers. Maulana Zahid ur raashdee , Tariq Azeem, both wrote
the agreement document. Every word was pondered upon and discussed.
Wherever anyone had concerns they were addressed. An envoy from Abdur
rasheed Ghazi also came and through him we also talked continuously with
Abdur rasheed Ghazi on telephone. His battery was getting finished so a
set was sent to him so that the discussion could be continued.

He also agreed to the prepared manifesto. However one thing he kept
insisting upon was that he kept asking me to make them accept one demand
of his that they should go inside the mosque along with the media and
the ministers so that I can show them the weapons inside, that which
weapons I possess. I am certain that they will kill me then they will
carry out this business, or if I am taken to my village they will do
their business either way: they will bring weapons and place them inside
and put the blame on me that he had amassed weapons. That is my request
and I beg you to bring them inside so I can show them what weapons we
have.
But there was nowhere to go, neither the media could go inside, nor
the ministers nor us. The agreement was done, everything was settled and
we also expressed our joy and Ejaz ul Haq said that if Allah (SWT)
decrees the peace deal today I will go to umrah the next day. We are
worried for a week our worries will finish.

The Presidency’s amendment

The time for signatures arrived. So these gentlemen went downstairs.
It was a small house of 2-stories and we were in a room upstairs where
the manuscript was being written and our delegates were downstairs and
these gentlemen, whether they talked to the presidency or not I do not
know, said we have to go to Presidency now to get permission from
President.
I was amazed that the PM, in full gathering had made the decision,
and according to that decision this manuscript was written with the
collaboration between our delegates and the Ministers. It was done in
the presence of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain whom we all respect, he is an
elder.

So why the need to go and ask permission from Presidency when the
PM…he had told us one thing in the meeting that we have also discussed
this with President Musharraf; which means from bottom to the top
everything was agreed upon. Abdur rasheed Ghazi was also prepared to
accept it. Now we had started saying that the students must be hungry so
he asked Ejaz ul Haq that food must be prepared for them.
What was agreed was that four of us (the delegates) and four
ministers would take control of the students (male and female) and
arrange for them to be returned to their families. This committee of
eight would take the students to a safe place and if there is any court
case we could deal with that later. Those upon whom there would be no
court case would be set free. However it was decided that those
convicted of crimes before Lal Masjid would not be set free but the rest
would be set free.
This all was decided.

Then these people said they had to go so we let them, and they
pleaded they would return in half an hour. We knew they would reach
presidency in half an hour so when will they return? Summary is that
after all this hard work, the entire day we could not rest, and the
night before too, and now this deadlock had materialized. We feared that
when they went to Presidency there was something amiss.

Anyway, we waited for two, two and a half hours and it rang midnight.
We feared something else was going to happen there so when the
gentlemen returned from there they were an entirely different persona.
They had brought back a few points written on a page
and the summary of it was, the words were pretty, just like the words
are pretty of the deceivers, and the summary was that all the facilities
that were being provided to Abdur rasheed Ghazi, all of them were being
denied.

For example it was written on that paper, read by Tariq Azeem that
the first point is that Abdur rasheed Ghazi along with his supporters
would come out, Abdur Rasheed Ghazi along with his family and belongings
would be held in a house. We asked which house? He has already said I
will not accept any house-arrest. I will lay down my life but not accept
this. We had agreed that he would be kept in his house in his village.
We insisted that according to the agreement he would be held in a
particular house i.e. in his village and we asked him which house they
were aiming for and they said it would be just a house. To which we
replied that agreement said his house in his village to which they said
this was not possible. No word can be altered from this page. We have
brought a final decision.

So I asked them to write on it that he would be held in his own house
and I took the pen and wrote it quickly on that paper. Added the words
‘his’ to it. So as these gentlemen were saying they would publish the
manuscript so my writing could be matched on both documents; that they
did not write it, I wrote it.
But they said it was useless to edit it as the actual document was at
Presidency. It cannot be altered. Tariq Azeem told me quietly that we
have been given half an hour you have to either get a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.
Then said fifteen minutes have passed. So I said the agreement which was
accepted by Abdur rasheed Ghazi is no more and this is a new matter
brought before us and we are not responsible for it. Abdur Rasheed
Ghazi’s envoy is here show him the new manuscript and if he approves and
gets it approved from Abdur rasheed ghazi then that is fine and good.

We were discussing this that a commander of the rangers came into the
small room where we eight, the four ulema and the four ministers were
seated. He kept looking at us and then at the watch, as though he was
indicating for us to leave. He was waiting for us to leave. So we
decided among ourselves that our stay here was fruitless and their
intentions are wicked and we should leave.

So as we were heading towards the door another officer asked us ‘are
you leaving?’ and I replied ‘our work is finished’. So he immediately
telephoned someone and said ‘but they are leaving’. Anyhow we got in our
car and came back to the hotel, it was 2:30 AM…Also this was the image
portrayed in TV that they went where the government had arranged for
their stay. No government had arranged our stay. We had made our own
arrangements, went on our own money and responsibility, went there as we
considered it our duty to broker peace.

Anyway we discussed back at our hotel and decided that right now…TV
people kept calling us all the time, so we shut off our mobile phones.
So that no TV reporter could contact us in a situation which was not
clear because there was a chance of one thing to happen, a tiny ray of
hope, and it was that Abdur rasheed Ghazi’s envoy was there with the
ministers and he was talking to Abdur rasheed Ghazi. Abdur rasheed Ghazi
as far as we know of latest happenings had rejected that new proposal.
He had said I would give up my life, this is deception and I cannot
accept. We had returned after that.

But there was that slim chance till the end that Abdur rasheed Ghazi
with the discussion between his envoy and ministers might accept
something. Maybe the government people might accept something of his
demands. So we shut down our mobiles because if we announced at this
point that the negotiations had failed then this small glimmer of hope
could be damaged. We shut down our mobiles. We decided, (and) we wrote
down a statement that no one would make individual announcements of this
failed negotiation. Everyone’s mobiles were shut.

The Truth and the Operation

What was decided, it was time for Fajr, and after we prayed Fajr we
decided we should sleep. During this I found out that the operation had
started there. That there was tremendous bombing as when Muslim forces
attack a non-Muslim enemy country such was the bombing, shelling and
firing. Destruction was rampant. When we opened the TV the situation was
totally different where opinions and analysis were dished out that
‘what happened’, ‘a little while ago it was heard that negotiations were
successful, what suddenly happened’. Everyone was giving their opinions
as I was watching the TV.

So we decided that we will do a press conference in the afternoon to
announce what had happened. But I wondered that entire country was
drowned in confusion. So I switched ON my mobile. Geo TV called me
immediately and they asked me ‘what had happened? The operation has
started’.
I told him everything.

This was 5 in the morning. Immediately they ran the reel of it and
started to show what was happening. At 6 am, after some sleepless nights
I finally laid down. At 8 I woke up and someone was cupping my feet.
Hamid Mir stood there. He said all the ministers are lying please tell
what happened. He had brought a camera along.

I told him everything and it was also recorded and said I would run
it within 45 minutes but it was broadcast in the evening. We had had our
press conference before that.
This is the entire story. I was asked by a TV channel personnel that
upon whom do you place the blame for this? I said ‘on President Pervez.
May Allah give him guidance’”

End of Speech.

Mufti Rafi Uthmani’s account is a very detailed discussion on the
events and we have tried our best to locate references for what he has
stated. In the following discussion we elaborate on some points he made
that were not highlighted in the media, and also scrutinize many media
and Pakistan Army accounts of the events of the operation.

Why was Maulana Abdul Aziz wearing a Burqa when he was arrested?

Maulana Abdul Aziz, the older brother of Abdul Rasheed Ghazi was
arrested while, as the government put it, trying to escape in a Burqa
from Lal Masjid during the operation. When asked about this Maulana Shah
Abdul Aziz, who is charged with negotiating a deal between the military
and Lal Masjid, answered:
“This is all government propaganda. The night Maulana Abdul Aziz was
arrested and brought to [state-run television] PTV, I had just finished a
talk show and was on the way out with Ejazul Haq [minister for
religious affairs] and the anchor of the program. I saw Maulana Aziz
along with security officials. He hugged me, but only touched fingers
when Ejaz tried to shake hands with him.
He immediately told me that he had been deceived. He said he was
called by a senior official of an intelligence agency with whom he had
been in touch for a long time. Since the official could not enter the
mosque to meet him [to save his cover and identity] he asked Maulana
Aziz to come to Aabpara police station [in walking distance of the
mosque] and asked him to dress in a burqa to avoid being
identified. [Aziz admitted that he and his brother Ghazi had done this
many times before when they were declared wanted by the government]. But
as soon as Maulana Aziz left the mosque he was arrested. “

He was shown on national televison
in a manner that leaves no doubt that this was an attempt to humiliate
him and Islamic scholars in general. What was the need to force him to
unveil himself right in front of live camera in such a dramatic fashion?
Couldn’t they have presented him without the Burqa? This is not the way
how honest media works, using cheap tactics to submerge the truth under
a wave of propaganda.
The media unfortunately axed their own foot by this tactic and lent
further legitimacy to the claims that the government deceived the
clerics and the students, while itself extinguishing the oft-repeated
claim that Maulana Abdul Aziz was saving his own life while the students
were in danger.

Asma bint Abdul Aziz also denied that
her father wanted to escape and said authorities had asked him to cover
his face to avoid the media and told him a meeting had been arranged
with a top government official, she said. “He wanted to save the lives
of hundreds of men, women and children,” she reportedly said. “I know
him as his daughter, he would have never surrendered.”

Talking to reporters after the funeral prayers, Maulana Abdul Aziz
said his failed escape from Lal Masjid was according to a plan made by
the two brothers. He said the government had humiliated him by forcing
him to wear Burqa. He said his wife and son were missing and the
government was not ready to provide any information about them.

Another student, Asma Mazhar
describes the horrific conditions of food and water inside the Lal
Masjid and how they were prevented by the soldiers from getting any
food:
“Bhai jaan (brother), we ate the same which brothers like you sent us
from outside. What did you people send to us? We ate trees’ leaves; we
plucked leaves off grape wine and drank dirty water, later that also
finished. We soaked cloths in that water and put them on our eyes to
protect from the tear gassing, and then the same water we drank. Once
brothers sent us some boxes of juice and biscuits from masjid, we asked
the young boy who brought them, ‘What have brothers eaten?’, and he
said, ‘Nothing, that’s all they had which they sent you’, on that we
asked the boy, ‘Go and take this back and tell them, the sisters are
saying, they have eaten their meals, so you eat them’, as soon as the
boy left the house a burst of bullets came and he got martyred. I saw
through the window, he was lying on the ground by the face and was
moving his foot, the blood was spreading out from his body. A little
while later, the boy was fired at again and the biscuits and juice
packets were destroyed. The juice ran out and biscuits were of no use.
For many days the body of that child was laid there.”

Here is Asma’s
mother’s account of how much she and her students loved Umm Hassan (the
Principal). She also accounts how Police men under captivity were
treated well (just as Mufti Rafi said). She also shows support for Ghazi
Shaheed despite her daughter being inside Lal Masjid and in grave
danger.

A female student’s account

She said when the fighthing started, it was the day when 550 female students (talibaat) were to be given chadaars,
it was their graduation day. She said that day 30 talibaat were in one
room when a bomb hit that room and they all died. She said we were
ordered by Umm Hassan to make a list of all the talibaat present that
day, and it was around 1500. After the whole thing was over, ladies
police took that list from us.
She said we didnt have anything to eat but honey with leaves. This
way leaves were not bitter with honey. She said Maulana Abdul Azeez told
us many times that if anyone wants to leave, they can. Whatever media
said that we were held hostages is nothing but a lie.

She said all the talibaat did isthikhara those days and we
saw that negotiaions would fail. One of the taliba saw Prophet s.a.w in
her dream and Prophet s.a.w gave a wird for all the talibaat to read.
She also said many of the talibaat there were from Kashmir whose
families were dead in the Kashmir earthquake. She said that was the day
550 talibaat were to receive their sanads and degrees but it never
happened. She said first day 30 talibaat, 2nd say 85 and the 3rd day 270
talibaat died. Army took those dead at night and burried them.

Who were they? Where did they go?

Dr. Shahid Masood describes the horrific massacre two little girls witnessed in this article
in Urdu. It talks about two little girls in the Madrassa that Dr.
Shahid Masood met. He used to visit the Madrassa and talk to the leaders
of the Masjid and was also given the opportunity to talk to the female
students. Thats the place where he met these girls. Umm Hassaan just
said they were nagging to meet him although they don’t talk to strange
men. One was a 8/10 years old girl called Asma with her elder sis Aisha
[names were changed in the article]. He had some innocent talks with the
girls and the article mentions how they were asking questions to them
and annoying him to get his phone number and also asked for an
autograph.

This was before the attack. After the attack he wondered about what
happened to those innocent girls and wished he could contact them.
Eventually the girls messaged him and had several conversations on the
phone.

Dr Shahid Masood wrote that he told the girls a number of times to
leave the complex because the army was going to attack and they luaghed
it off saying that “why would the army attack us? we’re not criminals.”
They mentioned the army are ‘kattar musulmaan’ which means hardcore/strong Muslims and why would their own army attack at them. That shows the innocence of these girls.

In the end this little girl Asma sent a message from the Madrassa to
call back which Dr. Masood did. He heard the little girl crying with
lots of noises in the background. Saying her elder sister died and the
phone call got disconnected then.

And now the questions that Dr. Shahid Masood is posing is: Who where they? And where did they go?

Were the students held at Lal Masjid against their will? Were they human shields?

The government prior to the operation made this claim. However as can
be seen from the link posted in last paragraph of the female survivor
that is hardly the case. It can also be seen from this video here that
and this one as well that a large number of students were staying behind
(despite numerous attempts by the Lal masjid clerics to send them back)
out of their own choice. Many left Lal Masjid before the start of the
operation (1250 to be precise), while those remaining out of the
estimated 5000 chose to fight with their teachers. Therefore the
students themselves debunked this government propaganda.

Maulana Abdul Aziz and Abdur Rasheed Ghazi’s love for the students
was something totally neglected by the media but it seemed to surface in
almost every interview the students gave afterwards or before the
operation (sometimes inadvertently) or when information on the brothers
prior to Lal Masjid was published. For example they used to spend 10
million PKR on the students and supported nearly 10,000 students, yet
they themselves are known to eat from the students’ leftovers. Despite
having so much funds to spend on students Abdur Rasheed Ghazi drove a
small Suzuki Mehran. When the library was taken over by the students of
Jamia Hafsa he told them not to damage anything in the library as the
library was trust of the nation. In almost every interview the nostalgic
students who made it alive speak of the repeated requests of the Lal
Masjid clerics to the students to leave and save themselves. Yet, as one
survivor describes it was immense love for Shahadat that they did not
budge. This is the human side of the students and the clerics that was
never made part of the barrage of articles by the Pakistani liberal
media that flooded the Internet in the wake of the massacre.

Compare this with the treatment meted out by the Pakistan armed
forces to the female students. Mufti Muhammad Na’eemur Rahman of wifaq
ul madaris during the heart of the operation said live on Geo tv that
many female students had been raped and molested by the armed personnel.
This should not be surprising since the female students who made out
alive always stated the same thing : the soldiers had asked them to
remove their hijab and veils while arresting them.They had slaughtered
the young boys accompanying these women and left them to rot for days
(as described by Ms. Mazhar above). A sister also describes this breifly
here:

“Then later on she and 30 students came out, army was on the walls of
the masjid, they started to fire. We yelled at them not to fire. Those
soldiers started to make fun of us and told us to take of our
niqab/hijabs. We refused so they did by force.”
– Umber Salim, student of Jami’ah Hafsah: “Ghazi’s leg was bleeding,
we refused to go out but he asked us to go for the sake of Allah.”

Asma Mazhar continues:
“When Ghazi sahib had been wounded, he said to Umm Hassaan, ‘If you
stay inside, these girls will also not go out and will be martyred.
People as well are saying we have made them hostage, for the sake of
Allah, take them out and tell the people about our calamity’, on that we
all agreed to go out, though we all the time wore burqa, we didn’t take
them off the whole week, who knew they would intrude anytime and we
wouldn’t be in hijab.”

If the hostage theory was true we ask that why had the media not
reported on the 1200 students who left the Jamia on the first day
(before the siege started)? What happened to those students, where did
they go, why weren’t they all over the news channels denouncing the
clerics?

Further – we ask that if the students were hostages then the tens
that came out one particular day, why were they coming out with the Nara
of Takbeer? Why have none of these students been put infront of the
camera to say how they were held hostage?

The Independent in their editions of 11 – 13 July 2007 had a small
line on one of their articles stating that it appears the students were not kept as hostages.

If one reads the interviews linked in this article of the surviving
female students one thing could be ascertained : Umm Hassan (the
Principal) had ‘tricked’ the female students into leaving the Jamia and
the madrassah by telling them everyone including Maulana Abdul Aziz was
planning to go out and surrender. In reality when the girls got away
they realized Umm Hassan was not with them. Upon hearing this, according
to Asma Mazhar, Fatima and Umamah some girls came back and asked her
why she did that to which she replied it was her home, where else would
she go? Upon hearing this, according to Ms. Mazhar 27 students refused
to leave without Umm Hassan.

Hence the hostage theory was simply government and Pakistan media propaganda that was not well-thought of.

How many weapons did the Lal Masjid fighters have?

From the plethora of the photos and videos of stick-wielding women
one can safely ascertain they had no automatic weapons or weapons of any
sort. Abdur Rasheed Ghazi and his fighters frequently claimed they had
13-14 AK47. It is also established from local accounts that many of the
fighters were the students themselves joined by local people from nearby
mosques in Islamabad and Rawalpindi who had decided to take part in
this battle by siding with those propagating Islamic Law. They were
simply volunteers who at best had private weapons to fight with.

The question is should Abudr Rasheed Ghazi and his fighters have weapons at all? This was answered by Sheikh Abu Hajira:
“And why can they not have weapons? Is it that the people want their
Imaams and Maulanas to be monks? Next we will say why do so purified and
high morale inheritors of the Prophet (PBUH) need to marry? They need
weapons to defend themselves just like Musharaf needs his commando
guards to defend him.”
If Ghazi was indeed lying why would he ask journalists and Ministers
to come inside Lal Masjid and have a look while the government did the
exact opposite and after the operation prevented them for three days
from entering it?

In reality he had only 13-14 AK 47, and those were for their
portection. Few months before the operation there was attack on his
life. He had the right to depend himself and carry arms.

Even a senior army colonel who
prayed in Lal Masjid on 3rd July 2007 recalls how there were no weapons
inside. You would expect the place to be brimming with weapons after
what the government showed via the media, no?

Were there foreigners?

This is best answered by Ms. Mazhar who states:
“We all came out of the house of Ghazi sahib and there were a few
steps between us and the security forces, that is when we came out, they
were a few steps away from Ghazi sahab’s house and in this distance I
saw three bodies, all were of brothers (boy students). Two of the bodies
were at the door step and they were bleeding, one of them was later
called a foreigner, and when I saw his picture in the newspaper I
recognized him that he was lying martyred at the door step of Ghazi
sahib. Another body outside the house was lying between the security forces.’

What happened to the dead of the Lal Masjid?

Abdul Sattar Edhi proclaimed he had been asked to prepare 400 coffins
by the government after the operation. The government varied in the
amount of casualties that often did not tally with existing records. For
example the government claimed 1500 females were alive in Jamia Hafsa
at one point. Then it stated 87 of them were killed. But no mention was
made of what happened to the rest of the 1400. Almost every female
student who made it alive gives the number of female students inside
between 1500 and 1600. Yet where did the remaining women vanish? When
reporters asked these quesitions, government officials have refused to
answer. One day it was in news that women who gave up few days before
the operation, most of them are still missing. No on knows where have
they gone.

What happened to the hundreds of female students that were in the
Jamia? The government stated famously that about 50 “militants” have
been “killed”, that about 70 have been arrested, that makes 120. Where
are the 1400 – 1500 other students and why have they not been put on the
news? This also quizzed prominent journalists at the time but no
conclusion was given by them.

What everyone knows and agrees is that 3 days after the operation
entire Lal Masjid was under lock down and no journalists were allowed
in. Neither were they allowed to see the injured or dead in hospitals by
the order of the government.

What was the government doing for three days in Lal Masjid?

Reports began to surface from the scholars and also ground witnesses
that mass graves were being dug. Reports also surfaced of ‘WP’ used by
the Pakistan Army better known an White Phosphorus. On 12th July, AAJ Tv
boradcasted a program of Live with Talat in which Talat Hussain visited
Jamia Hafsa. While touring the bullet ridden compound a number of
military personal hovered around, at a certain point Talat Hussain asked
an accompanying Army personal about all the evidence of smoke around
the area asking, “Why is there so much smoke?”, the solider replied
“WP”, Talat put another question “Please explain WP?”, the solider
answered “White Phosphorus.”

Other reports
emerged of men and women being buried together in single coffins and
that the Qur’an and other sacred texts burnt by the armed forces during
the massacre were thrown in a nearby gutter.

When the journalists were allowed to enter after three days it was
exactly how Abdur Rasheed Ghazi had feared: the complex was filled with
weapons supposedly left behind by the Lal Masjid group. Moreover barring
the bullet holes and charred structures the place was almost spotless.
The government did not comment on the allegations made on it of what it
was doing inside for three days and why journalists weren’t allowed
inside.

However as mentioned earlier the plethora of eye witness accounts,
not published by mainstream media gave a very accurate picture of what
they were doing: planting false weapons to implicate Ghazi Shaheed and
cleaning up the place of dead bodies either destroyed by the intensive
bombing or WP. This was how the government axed its foot again in the
aftermath of the massacre.
Afterwards the building of Jamia Hafsah was bulldozed to hide evidence. It was severely criticized most prominently by the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

Were all the scholars against the Lal Masjid clerics?

It is clear from Mufti Rafi’s article that he did not approve of the
clerics’ methodologies. However there were many senior scholars who did
support it and had good reason. One may cite this:“The Religious Decree By Imaam Abu Hanifah: Striving For The
Promulgation Of Sharee`ah Is More Excellent Than Performing Fifty
Optional (Nafl) HajjDuring the year 145 Hijrah, there was an uprising in Basrah
against Mansoor `Abbasi, an `Abbasid Caliph, Muhammad Nafs Zakiyyah and
Ibraheem Nafs Mardhiyyah proclaimed battle against caliph for the
promulgation of Sharee`ah. They conquered many cities. They enforced
Sharee`ah fully, wherever they prevailed. Imaam Abu Hanifah also
supported both brothers, along with the other `Ulama.Al-Yafi`ee writes: “Imaam Abu Hanifah incited people to favour
Ibraheem and ordered them to fight with government.” Imaam Zufar
recollects: “Imaam Abu Hanifah supported Ibraheem vociferously.”(With reference to Imaam Abu Hanifah Ki Siyasi Zindagi p. 343).It means that Imaam Abu Hanifah caring little for the retaliation
from the government openly supported Ibraheem; and whosoever was
underImaam’s influence, he persuaded and ordained him to support
Ibraheem also. If the term ‘Ordain’ be taken in its literal sense, then
it meant that to support him (Ibraheem) against tyrant was obligatory
(Fardh).And in what context obligatory?!The Renowned Traditionist of Kufa Ibraheem bin Suwaid states that
during the rebellion of Ibraheem bin `AbdulLah, I asked from Imaam
AbuHanifah his opinion about someone who performed his obligatory
(Fardh) Hajj; would it be better for him to do optional (Nafl) Hajj or
to fight against government under the command of Ibraheem. Ibraheem bin
Suwaid says, “I heard Imaam Abu Hanifah saying: “To participate in this
battle is more preferable to performing such fifty Hajj.”(With reference to Imaam Abu Hanifah Ki Siyasi Zindagi, compiled by Manazir Ahsan Gilani, p. 343) .”

Further on we can also cite from amongst the Tab’een such as Sa’eed
ibn Jubayr who were martyred by Hajjaj ibn Yusuf for the charge of
rebellion. There were many who joined the rebellion against the Ummayads
and were martyred by Hujjaj. Can they be termed vigilantes and not be
called shaheed? Also, what about Abdullah ibn Zubayr who was also
martyred as a rebel?

The list of scholars who supported his methodology included majority
of the scholars of KPK such as Mufti Shamzai Shaheed, scholars of Jamia
Ashrafia, many scholars of Rawalpindi, Muhaqqiq Sarfraz who has large
followers among the scholars and Dr. Sher Ali Shah. Others such as
majority of Wifaq ul Madaris and Mufti Taqi Uthmani gave a similar verdict as Mufti Rafi.

Did no army officer oppose this?

Apart from the colonel whose opinion we read a couple of paragraphs
ago not many army officers put into writing what they really thought of
the massacre. Some like Hamid Gul and a retired major
did but on the whole one must ask, did they all agree unanimously with
Musharraf that the Lal Masjid clerics and students should all be
slaughtered mercilessly? There were news of a Colonel being killed
because he refused to enter the Masjid. There was nothing on the media
about it. Ghazi Shaheed himself said he heard ‘Ya Ali Madad’ among the
army ranks when they attacked. It could mean two things: The Rafidhis
were hired to carry out the attack or Sind/Baloch regiment was hired
since both have the same slogan.

One thing is clear. The paid soldiers felt no sympathy for the Muslim
blood they were shedding as part of their job. Did this man who is
making a victory signal not feel even a slight ounce of pain after
inflicting such horrors on those students?

What happened after Lal Masjid is
well-known. All over Pakistan and particularly in Northern Areas the
army personnel, vehicles and even their families were attacked in
retaliation for Lal Masjid. Let us see who is to blame for that.

Kill the hostages? Whose hands are red?

Mufti Rafi Uthmani claims Musharraf is the one to blame for Lal
Masjid massacre. Pakistan’s liberal lobby and secular extremists lay the
blame on the clerics, citing that they made the Pakistani
armed forces kill the 500 – 1000 students and fighters present at the
Mosque (and in the process desecrate and burn the religious books)

As evident from Mufti Rafi Uthmani’s speech and the evidence in
various media that when Ghazi finally accepted to surrender and
negotiations had been settled, he was entitled free passage. This was overruled by Musharraf. So in the least he was a madhloom (oppressed) devoid of his right. He was killed by a leader who opressively violated the negotiations and attacked them.

Ghazi mentioned that during negotiations instead of talks the govt
official kept threatening that they will start the operation if he
doesnt accept. He said that they should not do the negotiation this way.
His refusal to not be house-arrested in any home except that in his
village is said to have borne out of the humiliation his brother faced
at the hands of the Pakistani media. Yet he continuously asked his
students to leave.
The media and the liberal masses slandered him to this day. One must
see what weight their claims hold. They stated he would rip the city
apart using suicide bombings. Here is what Ms. Mazhar’s response to that
was:
“Alas, that’s what is sad that we didn’t have arms, or we wouldn’t
only curse helplessly, we even asked Ghazi sahib, ‘You talked about
suicide bombing, now give us something so we can carry them out’, then
he said, ‘My daughter, that I said just as the part of strategy, you
should never think about that, we won’t even think of killing our own
people. We only had sticks in the madrasah as well as in the house, so
if anyone could try to get us inside, we would defend ourselves.’”

His kindness to his students is evident from each and every interview
of the survivors. Yet many other gems in his personality never surfaced
in the media. For example he gave naseehat
(advice) to an unknown journalist who had come to meet him and promised
him of leaving alcohol. Ghazi requested him to please do so as one of
his last requests.

The need to do self action was out of complete anoyance of the
useless government that promised and didn’t deliver. They claimed to be
islamic and yet harbored prostitutes pornography and vulgarity. These
people couldnt sit idle while sisters around them got sucked into the
western plague of materialism. So they acted. But one must not blame
them, government should be blamed which didnt do its job in the first
place..
Yes, modes were questionable, actions were incorrect, but intentions
were sincere. It was against the law, but law was against islam.

Mufti Rafi has said it clearly, that if they fought with sincere
intention then they are martyr and inshAllah in Jannah. If only our
young blood could have such zeal to do whatever it takes in following of
ulama to attain the truth, establish an environment where they would do
dhikr instead of xboxes, where they would go for five times salaah
instead of going to internet cafe for porn, where they could walk in
streets for dawah instead of glancing and gazing girls.

Musharraf, as posted in a link above deliberately annulled the
agreement to appease the United States juggernaut. A situation which
could have been solved amicably was turned into a horrific massacre that
he and his paid media tried their best to cover up. Musharraf’s
approval of torture is not hidden when he publicly admired the Israeli
General responsible for the massacre in Sabra and Shatila, Palestine.
His soft stance towards Israel, despite their almost daily pogrom of
innocent Palestinians is further proof of where his loyalties lie. His
enlightened moderation and extremist nationalism was nothing but an
attempt to dilute Islam and mold it to suit western ideologies – his
admiration of Ataturk and his dream of making Pakistan like Turkey is
proof of this.

He could have granted a safe passage to Ghazi to prevent bloodhshed.
It is a policy he himself is not opposed to nor does world politics
dictate otherwise. Indian Airlines aircraft was hijacked in 1999 and
taken to Kabul. The hijackers demanded safe passage to Maulana Mas’ud
Azhar and 35 people locked in Indian jails. According to Indian sources
they were charged with terrorism. But to guarantee the safety of their
180 passengers the Indian government gave them a safe passage.

Take British citizen Tahir Hussain for example, who had killed a
Pakistani taxi driver who was given death sentence by Supreme Court. But
on Price Charles visit to Pakistan he appealed to Musharraf, of all
people, and Musharraf not only prevented the death sentence from being
carried out but released Tahir Hussain via the Court and sent him back to Britain
in a special plane. But here Musharraf was a different man who did not
care for his own citizens and the children he and the media repeatedly
lied were taken ‘hostages’. Is this how a ‘hostage’ situation is
resolved? Kill all the hostages? Remove all evidence?

With the Lal Masjid operation Musharraf proved to what extent he
could go to appease his western allies and protect his self-created
version of Islam. He did all he could to silence the Ghazi. No wonder the operation was called Operation Silence.
But in his brutality he inadvertently turned the sympathy of anyone who
was not a secular extremist towards the plight of the Ghazi and his
poor kids. He is responsible for the massacre at Lal Masjid and he and
his army supporters are responsible for the attacks on army vehicles,
personnel and families in retaliation to Lal Masjid. You simply do not
massacre people mercilessly and expect the other party to remain civil.

Ghazi Shaheed’s innocence however is proven in his death – or more properly in his smiling death face. Have a look:

Now compare his smiling face to the smiles of these martyrs from
different parts of the Islamic world who laid down their lives in the
way of Allah and were admitted into Jannah straight away. The video you
just saw; might be a good idea to look at it’s description. Is this not a
sign of his innocence?

Ghazi Shaheed is no more with us yet his wife gave birth to his son,
who was named after him, right on that very day he was martyred . He and
his fellows were unanimously declared martyrs by the scholars of Islam,
prominent among them Mufti Rafi himself and Mufti Raheem Usmani.
As for the Pakistan Army Mufti Rafi himself said that those who fought
with sincere intentions and not as paid mercenaries and died were also
martyrs. But he may be the only one who said that. A reporter from Aaj
TV inadvertently told the audience that during the Lal Masjid operation
one of the soldiers was ‘unfortunately martyred’. The truth
comes out in such unexpected ways. The Pakistan Army made us revisit
1971 again yet this time it was not housands of kilometres away that
they could fool us.

Ghazi is no longer with us but his legacy continues, upholding the
honorable Standard of Islam against the tides of secularism, atheism,
vulgarity, moral and ethical degradation and the danger to world peace
that they all pose.

These kids that were slaughtered were not anti-Pakistani or foreign
agents. In one of the rooms of their madrassah where there was blood and
broken bangles, written on the black board were the words: “Pakistan Zindabad”. Here are accounts of the Ghazi’s last moments and here is his will and his last message
He was no more than a Surgeon who amputated the Gangrene- ridden arm
of a patient that threatened to spread to his entire body, killing him
in great pain; rather than sit idly and watch the patient suffer
endlessly.
We are the patients. We are just unaware of the Gangrene creeping
into our veins every day because of lack of Islam. It is only people
like Abdur Rasheed Ghazi Shaheed that shake us awake.

We are obliged to thank Mufti Rafi Uthmani for this balanced and
eloquent lecture. We admire the fact he worked tirelessly for days
before the Operation trying to resolve the crisis. May Allah increase
the love and respect for the Ulema in our hearts. The superiority of his
account can be ascertained by his last words, which are a prayer for
Musharraf. Should we trust a man of such noble manners over a media that
does not even verify news before publishing and does not even know that January 1st 2001 was a Monday not a Friday?

(English translation of the Speech by Mufti Rafi Uthmani titled “What
happened in Lal Masjid?” can be downloaded in the form of a booklet from here)

Marhaba/Khushamadeed/Welcome

Dear visitor,If you recognize the following pictures then you are at home. If not then you are welcome as a guest. Here you'll find some tidbits related to some thing called Aligarh Movement with a tilt towards issues related to Science in Islamic context.